LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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Congressional Reconstruction. 



SPEECH 




HON. JOHN S. BIGBY, 



OF OEOHaiA^, J- 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



FEBRUARY 24, 18X2. 



WASHINGTON: 
F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS 
1872. 



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Congressional Reconstruction. 



The House having met for debate as in Commit- 
tee of the Whole on the State of the Union — 

Mr. BIGBYsaid: 

Mr. Speaker: I propose to devote the 
time that I shall occupy to the considera 
tion of Georgia affairs and the restoration 
of that State to the sisterhood of States 
under congressional reconstruction. It is not 
an uncommon thing to hear upon the floor of 
this House from the Opposition denunciation 
of all of the governments in the late insurrec- 
tionary States as carpet-bag governments, and 
those who shared in their formation and have 
participated in their administration as thieves 
and robbers. Indeed, so habitual has become 
this custom that gentlemen do not pause to 
consider its injustice, nor do they take the 
trouble to ascertain whether there is, in point 
of fact, any foundation for such wholesale 
abuse. They assume to be true what they 

frant to believe, trusting rather to rest their 
barges upon the idle notions of a distempered 
fancy than the solid foundations of immutable 
truth. Their course aptly illustrates the force 
of habit, and demonstrates the persistency with 
which erroneous conclusions are clung to, when 
such conclusions will neither bear the analysis 
of scrutiny nor the test of investigation. 

That the government of Georgia is not as 
perfect as its friends would have it be, and 
that those who have administered its different 
departments are not as pure as an exacting 
morality would require, I presume no one will 
pretend to den3^ Still, I apprehend that the 
most searching and remorseless investigation 
will fail to disclose any great moral turpitude, 
or to discover anything more than occasional 
blunders in the policy pursued. Looking to 
the circumstances under which the organiza- 
tion of the new government was accomplished, 



and it is more a matter of astonishment than 
otherwise that it is so perfect in all its parts. 
Its organic law was made under the most try- 
ing embarrassments and the most untoward 
circumstances. 

The convention that framed it met at a time 
when passion ruled the hour, and its members 
in the performance of their high duty encoun- 
tered every obstacle that ingenuity could sug- 
gest or malice devise. It was the ardent wish 
of the enemies of the Government that the work 
of reconstruction should prove a failure, and 
for the accomplishment of that end they levied 
contribution upon their entire resources. They 
brought to the work the most splendid talents 
of their leaders, and, with an industry worthy 
of a better cause, pursued their purpose until 
the friends of the Government discomflted 
them, and achieved a success that will stand 
as a monument of their liberality, wisdom, and 
statesmanship through all coming time. 

When delegates were to be chosen to that 
convention, its adversaries adopted as their 
line of policy non-action, and no device was 
left untried to prevent men of character, ca- 
pacity, and social position, from becoming 
candidates for the same. Some of the best 
citizens of the State who desired her relations 
to the General Government adjusted, and who 
would have become candidates for election to 
the convention, were deterred from so doing 
by the pressure invoked for that special pur- 
pose. It was a favorite idea with the enemies 
of reconstruction to have it, if possible, break 
down of its own weight. Finding, however, 
that such an issue was not probable, it was 
then hoped that the constitution to be framed 
would in its essential characteristics be so 
proscriptive and obnoxious that when sut- 
milted to the people it would fail of ratifica- 



tion, and all the appliances supposed to be 
useful for such a result were freely used. 

Much to the surprise of the eneaiies of 
reconstruction, however, after three months 
of earnest, honest, laborious work, a consti- 
tution waa adopted, and upon its submission 
to the people was ratified, which in point of 
merit was not only equal to, but very much 
excelled all previous State constitutions. Its 
framers, discarding all prejudice, and with a 
liberality of feeling not anticipated under the 
circumstances, invested every citizen of the 
State with all of the rights, privileges, and 
immunities enjoyed by any one of them. 
There was no restriction placed upon the 
elective franchise, save as to persons convicted 
of treason, embezzlement of public funds, 
malfeasance in office, crime punishable by 
law with imprisonment in the penitentiary, or 
bribery, and idiots and insane persons. The 
right to hold office was not denied to any one 
except for the reasons before enumerated. 
The road to preferment was thrown wide open 
to every citizen of the Commonwealth. In 
letter and spirit it gave equal rights to all, not 
grudgingly, but freely and cheerfully. Indeed, 
such was the magnanimity and generosity 
exhibited toward the enemies of reconstruc- 
tion and the foes of the Government, that 
they themselves were dumb with astonish- 
ment, and from their reluctant and unwilling 
lips was wrung the concession that it was a 
most excellent piece of workmanship. They 
admit that in many of its distinctive features 
it is a decided improvement upon the old con- 
stitution. The judiciary, especially, met the 
approval of the legal fraternity throughout the 
State. They cheerfully granted that it pos- 
sessed marked advantages over former judicial 
systems in that State. 

Under this constitution an election was held, 
a Governor elected, members o'.' the Legisla- 
ture chosen, and all of the machinery of gov- 
ernment put in motion. The Governor, when 
installed into office, proceeded to appoint, in 
accordance with the provisions of the consti- 
tution, the judicial officers of the State, includ- 
ing supreme court judges, the superior court 
judges, notaries public, &c. The appointments 
in the main were good. And these officers of 
the law, by their fair and impartial administra- 
tion of justice, soon won the esteem and con- 
fidence of all of the just and fair-minded peo- 
ple. In every instance appointments were 
made from natives of the State, or persons 



who had long been residents, and were closely 
identified with her interests. Many of them 
in former days had held positions of honor 
and trust under either the State or Federal 
Government, and no one could truthfully say 
that they were in any respect inferior to those 
who had been their predecessors. The same 
may be said generally of those chosen to fill 
places in the new government. 

The Governor had entered upon the func- 
tions of his office but a short time until appli- 
cations for pardons of persons completing 
sentences imposed by the courts began to 
claim his attention for executive clemency. 
That he used the pardoning power quite lib- 
erally I shall not pretend to dispute. Never- 
theless, much of the complaint against him on 
that score is without just cause. Doubtless 
in a few cases he blundered, and it may be 
that he is open to censure for the grant of 
executive clemency. There was not that 
abuse of the pardoning power, however, that 
is commonly supposed. Many convicts re- 
ceived pardons, and it was right that they 
should. The facts of their cases entitled them 
to them. 

Immediatelyafter the close of the war society 
was in a state of excitement, the minds of 
men were feverish, much prejudice existed, 
especially toward the newly-emancipated race, 
and convictions were had with wonderful 
facility. Slight circumstances in the then dis- 
tempered and unnatural state of the public 
mind were regarded as conclusive of guilt, and 
in many instances verdicts of guilty were re- 
turned upon testimony which afterward, in A 
more sober hour, would have appeared quite 
unsatisfactory to the minds of those who ren- 
dered them. And it was not an uncommon 
occurrence to find those who had been eager 
for convictions, petitioning, in behalf of those 
whose convictions they sought, for executive 
clemency. 

In some cases, the judges who presided at 
the trial, the solicitors general who represented 
the Commonwealth, the parties who appeared 
as prosecutors, the jurors who returned the 
verdicts, and the best citizens of the country, 
men of inrelligence and substantial worth, 
would petition for the pardon of a convict, and 
if the Executive yielded to their wishes, he 
did that only which an enlightened public 
sentiment approved and the justice of the case 
absolutely demanded. In my own judicial dis- 
trict, during the entire administration of Gov- 



ernor Bullock, I never heard of but two par- 
dons of persions convicted of crime, and I am 
quite sure that the propriety of neither one 
could be seriously questioned. 

Under the government established in Geor- 
gia in accordance with the proclamation of 
President Johnson in 1865, a savage and 
bloody criminal code was adopted. Crimes 
which previously had been felonies only were 
made capital. Burglary in the night-time, 
horse-stealing, arson of old unoccupied out- 
houses, which before had been felonies, were 
all made capital offenses, and individuals con- 
victed of any of these crimes were to be pun- 
ished with the extreme penalty of death, 
unless the jury trying the case graciously rec- 
ommended imprisonment for life in the peni- 
tentiary of the Slate. The Governor, upon his 
accession to power, therefore, found many per- 
sons under sentence of imprisonment for life 
where the crime committed consisted in break- 
ing and entering some smoke-house or corn- 
crib, and stealing therefrom a few pounds of 
bacon or a trifling quantity of corn, and, in 
some cases, under strong mitigating circum- 
stances. 

When the hour of passion had passed, when 
the people had returned to their sober judg- 
ments, it was not astonishing that a more 
Christian sentiment and a higher regard for 
the teachings of an enlightened humanity sug- 
gested the propriety of a modification of these 
sentences, and in some cases of asking for a 
free and full pardon. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that the Executive of Georgia lib- 
erally dispensed the pardoning power. He 
was not only yielding to the popular will,, but 
conforming his action to the voice of con- 
science and the dictates of common humanity. 
Enlightened reason and impartial justice de- 
manded it, and to have denied it under the 
circumstances would have been to have trifled 
with duty and trampled under foot the plain 
requirements of acknowledged justice. 

Whatever, therefore, may have been the 
shortcomings of the Executive of Georgia, 
and doubtless he had his share of them, he 
did not, after all, so grievously offend in this 
particular. In some instances parties were 
pardoned before trial, but many of them had 
been under indictment for a dozen years or 
more; the witnesses upon which the State re- 
lied for convictions, as well as those for the 
defense, had moved away, or, in some ca^es, 
slept the long sleep of death upon some battle- 



field of the war ; the parties had become 
reconciled, and a further prosecution was not 
required for the vindication of the majesty of 
the law, and would have resulted often onl}' in 
a verdict of acquittal. Let it be remembered, 
also, that the exercise of the pardoning power 
was not confined to members of his own polit- 
ical party, but extended to everj' case where 
the facts and circumstances rendered its use 
advisable. 

It cannot be said, therefore, that the Gov- 
ernor was influenced by partisan spirit, or 
acted for the benefit of his political friends. 
In some instances pardons were granted for 
good behavior to those who had nearly com- 
pleted the term of confinement imposed upon 
them. In such cases they took effect only a 
day or two before the expiration of the terra 
of confinement imposed by the sentence of the 
court, and had the effect to restore the party 
thus pardoned to the civil rights of a citizen. 
But then, again, it is charged that the people 
of Georgia have been robbed and swindled 
under Radical rulers, and taxed until their 
burdens are too grievous to be borne. While 
there has doubtless been mismanagement upon 
the part of sotne officials, and in some in- 
stances peculation, yet the wholesale corruption 
charged is not supported by the facts; nor has 
there been that amount of extravagance which 
the Opposition would have the country believe. 
For the purpose of arriving at the truth, let us 
look to the figures. At the close of the fiscal 
year in 1860 the public debt of the State was 
$2,670,750. The State was also pledged to a rail- 
road subscription of $500,000, making the actual 
and contingent debt of the State $3,170,750. 
In 1865 the debt had increased to $5,706,500, 
besides the debt contracted in aid of the war, 
which was $15,104,726 50, which latter debt 
was repudiated, leaving the increase of the 
debt, apart from the war debt, $2,535,750. 
The public debt of the State in 1868, at the 
inauguration of the reconstructed government, 
was $6,544,500, showing an increase of the 
debt under a Democratic administration, be- 
tween the close of the war and the adoption 
of the new constitution in 1868, of $838,000. 
These figures demonstrate the fact that the 
public debt under Democratic rule was in- 
creasing with fearful rapidity. The expense 
of administering the State government from 
the 16ih of October, 1866, to the 16th of 
October, 1867, under Governor Jenkins, a 
Democratic Governor, was $2,689,363 86. 



6 



The expense of administering it under Gov- 
ernor Bullock from January 1, 1869, to Jan- 
uary 1, 1870, was $1,857,825 98, and from the 
1st of January, 1870, to 1st of January, 1871, 
$1,470,021, showing the expenses of Governor 
Bullock's administration to be for the year 
1869, $8:11,537 87, and for the year 1870, 
$1,219,342 85 less than those of Governor 
Jenkins for the year ending 16th of October, 
1867. It will be borne in mind, also, that the 
period of time covered by the administration 
of Govervior Bullock was one of unusual excite- 
ment ; the voting population had about doubled 
in number, much disorder prevailed ; and these 
circumstances combined to create an actual 
necessity for an increase in expenditures for 
the purpose of keeping the machinery of gov- 
ernment in motion. And yet we find the most 
expensive year of Governor Bullock's admin- 
istration, $831,537 87, less than that of his 
predecessor, Governor Jenkins. 

Now conceding, for the sake of the argu- 
ment, that Governor Bullock managed badlyi 
that he was extravagant and did not properly 
care for the public funds, that the public debt 
increased under his administration, and the 
taxes were onerous ; and conceding further, 
that Governor Jenkins was all that his parti- 
san friends claimed for him ; conceding that 
he was a gure patriot and an incorruptible 
statesman ; nay, more, granting that he was 
what the Democracy declared him to be, the 
soul of honor and the representative of all 
that is commendable in action and praiseworthy 
in life — admitting all of this, admitting that he 
was irreproachable in character, and possessed 
splendid abilities, yet we find that the ex- 
penses of his administration for a given period 
of time exceed those of Governor Bullock's 
administration for a like period of time — a 
year being taken as the standard — by the sum 
of $831,537 87 ; and that, too, when the neces- 
sity for heavy expenses was in favor of Gov- 
ernor Bullock, and the most expensive year 
of his administration having been taken for 
the comparison. The figures, after all, are 
not so damaging to the administration of Gov- 
ernor Bullock and the Republican party in 
Georgia ; and if they show extravagance, 
they further show that Democratic rule in 
Georgia is obnoxious to the same charge — 
just as vulnerable, and rather more so. 

On the 1st of January, 1872, the debt of the 
State was $8,618,750. At the same date the 
contingent liabilities of the State were $7,083,- 



400, in which is included a railroad subscrip- 
tion, made under Governor Jenkins's adminis- 
tration, of $400,000 to the Macon and Bruns- 
wick road, making the actual and contingent 
debt of the State $15,702,150. The contingent 
liabilities cannot properly be considered as a 
part of the State debt, as it is hardly probable 
that they will ever become a charge upon the 
Slate, she being fully and amply protected. 
The State never indorses the bonds of any 
road until the extent of road indorsed for is 
actually constructed and in operation, and 
then only for a sum equal to one half of the 
cost of construction, with a prior lien upon 
the entire property of the road, and the right 
to take possession to save herself harmless 
at any time when the road fails to meet its 
obligations. 

It is not true, therefore, that the actual in- 
debtedness of Georgia is thirty or forty million 
dollars, as has been asserted upon the floor of 
this House, but her real debt is represented 
by the figures $8,618,750. And of that por- 
tion accruing under Republican rule a consid- 
erable sum was for property purchased by the 
State, of absolute necessity and great value. 
Persons, therefore, who assert that Geor- 
gia is bankrupt, deal more in fancy than fact. 
Nor has there been that extravagance that the 
enemies of the new government would have 
us believe. It is, no doubt, true that the 
expenditures have been much larger than an 
economical administration would justify; still, 
the larger portion of them have been spent in 
the State, and help to swell the individual 
wealth of the people. 

It is true that the taxes have increased, and 
in the very nature of things it could not have 
been otherwise. For while the necessity for 
revenues has increased, the taxable property 
from which they are to be collected since 1860 
has greatly diminished. The valuation of tax- 
able property in 1860 was $672,292,447; in 
1871 it was $240,000,000. The assessed value 
of slaves in 1860 was $302,694,855; now, a 
total loss. And the results of the war had the 
efi'ect to depreciate property otherwise. It is 
not wonderful, therefore, that taxation has 
increased. Indeed, it is the legitimate effect 
of the war with its consequent desolations. 

I presume none of Governor Bullock's 
friends will claim for him that he was a great 
financier, nor were his ideas of statesmanship 
as comprehensive as those of some of his 
predecessors. Still, his purposes in the main 



were good, and under the policy of his admin- 
istration the resources of the State were 
largely developed. During his administration 
three hundred miles or more of railroad were 
built, and a marked stimulus given to. the 
diversified interests of the country. Even the 
construction of the railroads, to which the 
State lent its aid, and on account of which 
the contingent liabilities of the State to the 
sum of $7,083,400 exist, had the effect to in- 
crease the value of property along their lines 
since 1868 to the amount of $14,000,000. 

The administration of Governor Bullock 
could not in any just sense be styled a carpet- 
bag administration. The more important 
offices of the government were filled either by 
native Georgians or persons fully identified 
with the government by long residence and 
citizenship. His secretary of State was an 
old citizen of Georgia ; his treasurer was an 
old citizen of the State; his comptroller gen- 
eral was a native of the State. The judges of 
the supreme court and the superior court judges 
were old citizens of the State, enjoying the 
confidence of the people, selected with ref- 
erence to their capacity and fitness for their 
positions, and who have discharged their re- 
spective duties with an ability and fidelity 
creditable to themselves and honorable to the 
State. And like praise may generally be 
bestowed upon the officers in the other depart- 
ments of the government. 

While the Governor remained loyal to the 
Republican cause, I believe the most rigid 
investigation into his official conduct will fail 
to discover on his part any criminal transaction 
whatever. It was not until he began to coquette 
with Democracy that divergence from the line 
of official rectitude became apparent. For 
twelve months or more preceding his depart- 
ure from the State we had regarded him as a 
convert to the heresies of Democracy. All of 
his appointments were Democratic. He gave 
his official patronage to members of that party. 
When a vacancy occurred upon the supreme 
court bench by the resignation of Chief Jus- 
tice Brown, we find him filling that place with 
Judge Lochrane, a gentleman who in 1868 
was the Democratic nominee for Congress in 
the fourth congressional district of Georgia. 
When a vacancy occurred in the judgeship of 
the Tallapoosa circuit, we find him filling that 
position with Hon. W. F. Wright, Democratic 
nominee for Congress in 1871 for the third 
congressional district of Georgia. In the 



Fulton circuit we find him placing upon the 
bench Hon. John L. Hopkins, a distinguished 
member of the Democratic party, who, in the 
gubernatorial contest, canvassed with telling 
effect against the Governor's own election. 
It is said that of the two hundred employes 
upon the State road a large majority of them 
were Democratic ; and the same tale might 
be told of all the appointments made through- 
out the entire State. If guilty of malfeasance 
in his administration it must have occurred 
after his defection from the Republican party ; 
and while all of the presumptions are in favor 
of innocence until guilt is shown, yet his de- 
parture from the State under the circum- 
stances which occurred affords some ground 
for such belief. It may be very safely said that 
the transactions involving his official honor 
were had after he got the consent of his mind 
to align himself with the Democracy, a thing 
for which the Republican party is in no meas- 
ure responsible. 

Allowing the past to have its full weight, 
every conscientious and reflecting mind must 
doubtless come to the conclusion that the ma- 
terial prosperity of the State depends upon the 
ascendency of Republican principles. The 
Republican party is essentially a party of 
progress. Under its rule, education is dis- 
seminated among all the children of the land. 
It would erect a school-house in every com- 
munity, and for a reign of ignorance, substitute 
one of intelligence. Recognizing the dignity 
of labor, it would extend eneourageraent to 
all the toiling sons of industry. Where it holds 
sway school-teachers and ministers of the gos- 
pel can go in the performance of their high 
missions without harm or injury — invaluable 
auxiliaries in the march of progress and civil- 
ization. Guaranteeing all the rights of citi- 
zenship to every one, and clothing every man 
with all the privileges of a freeman, it throws 
wide open the avenues to preferment, and 
recognizes merits only as the passport of the 
man. Congressional reconstruction in Georgia 
has been an acknowledged success under the 
Government to which it has given birth; the 
desolations of the war are rapidly disappear- 
ing, and a people whose energies were par- 
alyzed and hopes dismayed are realizing con- 
stant accretions to their wealth and pros- 
perity. 

Upon the sites of burnt towns magnificent 
cities are springing into existence, and where 
were to be seen barren fields a generous agri- 



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014 418 841 ft 



culture presents its bountiful harvests. The 
murmurs of the stream which but a few years 
ago rolled along in silent grandeur is now 
hushed by the music of the busy factory. 
Under the influence of their beneficent sway 
all the noble impulses of a generous humanity 
are called into action, and every one, feeling 
that freedom is his inheritance, strives for a 
higher place in the scale of an honorable man- 
hood. In this contest the colored man is not 
indififerent to the claims which society has upon 
him, nor does he underestimate the boon 
which the friends of freedom have bestowed 
upon him. Right nobly has he acted his part 
since the manacles of slavery were stricken 
from his limbs, and he sent forth upon the 
mission of life with all the rights of a citizen 
and an equal before the law. Nor is his mind 
vailed in the night of darkness which the ene- 
mies of human liberty would fain have the 
country believe. 

It is true, that in the arts and sciences, in 
polite literature and classic lore, the colored 
voting population have not yet made much 
advancement ; but they are keenly alive to all 
the duties of good citizenship and fairly com- 
prehend the principles of government upon 
■which the substantial prosperity of the nation 
depends. Nor has he, as a general thing, been 
immodest in his aspirations for positions of 



honor and trust. In many instances he has 
been compelled to seek position because there 
was no one of the more favored race who 
would consent to become the exponent of the 
principles of his party. It is not strange, 
therefore, that he has been found in conven- 
tions which made organic law, and in Legis- 
latures which enacted the needful laws for the 
government of the country. That he is worthy 
of the elective franchise is abundantly shown 
by the care and fidelity with which he has ex- 
ercised it. And that party which conferred it 
upon him, and which would secure him in its 
peaceful enjoyment, deserves to live forever in 
the memory of a grateful people. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said thus much, not 
in vindication of Governor Bullock, for I 
aspire to no such task, but to aid the cause 
of truth, and to relieve Georgia, in so far as I 
can, from the circulation of a slander that 
must inevitably damage her credit, cripple 
her resources, exclude from her borders the 
emigrant with his capital and enterprise, and 
exert a blighting influence upon all of her 
prospects for wealth and prosperity. I speak 
for Georgia and her government, feeling as- 
sured that every one who makes her his home, 
may enter the race for wealth, prosperity, and 
happiness with a fair prospect of achieving 
success. 



UB( 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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